Nineteen-eighteen was the perfect time for a virus to spread. Hastened by World War One, the virus hitched a ride on every moving body. Soldiers and doctors who were fighting a war overseas had no idea there would be another battle waiting for them back at home.

In this episode, Alex Pere speaks with Mike Anderson, a Bisbee historian, who describes the conditions that helped the virus proliferate, and the women who stepped up to care for those in their community. We also hear from Dr. Guangzhou Han, a researcher who worked with University of Arizona evolutionary biologist, Dr. Michael Worobey. Han and Worobey found startling evidence that sheds light on how the 1918 influenza left a lasting mark on young people

About "Of Power and Pandemics:

This series was produced as part of the University of Arizona School of Journalism apprenticeship program, and is distributed via this platform by The Daily Wildcat.

More than one-hundred years ago, during the 1918 influenza pandemic, Arizona residents saw and experienced how existing hierarchies of power impacted the lives of those living in the Arizona-Mexico borderlands. From immigrant miners in Bisbee, to women and members of the military, in “Of Power and Pandemics,” UA School of Journalism students delve into the challenges that many essential workers of the time faced. Through interviews with descendants of those who lived through the early twentieth-century pandemic, and by using investigative journalism tools such as text-mining of historic newspapers, the reporting team reveals that the 1918 pandemic and power were inextricably linked. The podcast series was supported by the University of Arizona Libraries and an Andrew W. Mellon Foundation grant.

The Team: Yasmin Acosta, Mandy Loader, Clara Migoya, Alex Pere

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